Asked about refunds for callers to the faked competitions, Mr Thompson told BBC News 24: "If there is a way of recompensing then we will do it."

The BBC Trust said it was "deeply concerned that significant failures of control and compliance within the BBC have compromised the BBC's values of accuracy and honesty".

'No excuse'

BBC One's Sports Relief in July 2006, Comic Relief in March 2007, Children In Need on BBC Scotland in November 2005, The Liz Kershaw Show on BBC 6 Music and CBBC programme TMi were all found to have breached editorial standards.

Mr Thompson said: "It is right that we are open with the public when we have fallen short and that we demonstrate that we take this very seriously indeed," he added.

"There is no excuse for deception. I know the idea of deceiving the public would simply never occur to most people in the BBC.

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"If you have a choice between deception and a programme going off air, let the programme go. It is far better to accept a production problem and make a clean breast to the public than to deceive," he added.

The Trust, the BBC's governing body, said: "The public has a right to expect the BBC to set the standards for editorial integrity in broadcasting and expect those in charge of the Corporation to protect the reputation of their public institution."